


The Butterfly's Flight

by bladespark



Series: Blood and Butterflies (ThanZag) [4]
Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood Drinking, Bottom Thanatos (Hades Video Game), Incest, M/M, Part of bladespark's main Hades universe, Self-Esteem Issues, Temporary Character Death, Top Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:53:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29069856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bladespark/pseuds/bladespark
Summary: The quest is over, the Queen returned, and all is right in Hell. Zagreus has his job, endlessly fighting up to the surface, and Thanatos has his, reaping the souls of the dead.Yet in an idle conversation, Zagreus reveals that he still feels trapped, and is only making the best he can of the situation he's stuck in.  Thanatos, wanting to make his dearest love happy, resolves to find a way, somehow, for Zagreus to truly escape Hell at last. Even if it costs him everything, including Zagreus himself.
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Series: Blood and Butterflies (ThanZag) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2096976
Comments: 28
Kudos: 110





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The (for now) conclusion to this series, so expect an eventual happily ever after!
> 
> I've written it all, and will post a chapter a day until it's done. So no worries, I won't leave you hanging!

Hypnos wasn’t stupid.

They’d known something odd was going on the first time Zagreus had climbed up out of the Styx and shaken off the river’s blood. That was all very much an everyday thing, now, of course, even with Persephone back in the House.  
They’d been shocked but had instantly known what it meant when Hades himself emerged from the near-infinite red. He walked up those stairs every once in a while these days, and didn’t seem to mind it that much anymore. Hypnos had even caught him smiling and muttering, “That’s my boy,” once.

But they hadn’t been able to figure out the latest puzzle at all, and neither party involved would speak to them about it, no matter how often they asked. They’d first assumed, when the “Cause of death” line in their book said “Thanatos,” after Zagreus’ latest death, that the two must be having some sort of lover’s spat. Given that Thanatos was the god of death and Zagreus had a reputation for being incredibly violent and dangerous these days, a lover’s spat turned deadly had seemed logical.

Yet Hypos had become certain that couldn’t be the case, given that it had happened half a dozen times now, while the two seemed just as affectionate as ever. More affectionate than ever, even.

There was definitely something bizarre going on, though. And just now it had gotten even stranger. Hypos was still staring in utter shock at their book, long after Thanatos had stalked past them and into the lounge.

The words there refused to stop being ridiculous. Just seeing “Name of deceased: Thanatos” was insane enough. The god of death didn’t die. Hypos couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. But what was even more impossible was the next line. “Cause of death: Thanatos.”

Why the _hell_ had their brother killed himself?


	2. Chapter 2

Thanatos, god of death, former ruler of the underworld, and current boyfriend of the blood god Zagreus, inspected himself very carefully before stepping into the infernal lounge. He didn’t want any trace of the Styx to give away what he’d just done. His brother would inevitably know, but Thanatos couldn’t help that, so he could only hope Hypnos didn’t gossip about it.

Having made certain he was free of betraying blood, he got himself a double of nectar and dropped down into a chair with a sigh. Tossing back half the drink, he let his scythe vanish into the ether and leaned back, staring up at the rafters above, where Dusa, he noticed, was dusting. Zagreus must have been here recently.

Zagreus.

Thanatos sighed again. Why did this all have to be so difficult? Things had been going so well, and then…

“Hey, Than. Save some nectar for the rest of us, okay?”

Thanatos looked down and saw Megaera grinning at him from across the table. “Hi, Meg.”

She dropped into the chair opposite him. “You doing okay there? You sucked that down like you maybe wanted some of the Lethe instead.”

Thanatos shrugged. “I’m managing well enough.”

Megaera gave him a flat look, then shrugged and sipped from her own drink. “If you say so.”

Thanatos stared down into his glass, and managed to not heave another sigh.

“You want to talk about it?” asked Megaera.

“No.” His reply was short, but not harsh. Megaera would understand.

“Fair enough.” Megaera took another swig of her own drink, and said nothing further, the pair sitting in silence, as they had many times before.

Thanatos suddenly drained his glass. There was no point hanging around here. He’d felt, after what he’d just done, that he should rest and recover before trying to get it right this time, but honestly, it would probably be better to just get this all over with as quickly as possible. So he set the empty cup down and rose.

“See you, Meg.”

Then with a flash of light he vanished elsewhere.

Time to die again.

****

It had begun with a bit of idle chatter. Thanatos couldn’t even recall what had prompted him to ask Zagreus if he’d found any new weaknesses in the defenses of the underworld lately.

Zagreus had laughed. “No, of course not. I know everything about how it all works by now! I’ve been doing this long enough at this point.”

Curious, Thanatos had said, “Then why keep at it, if it serves no purpose?”

The laughter had faded, and Zagreus’ expression had turned suddenly serious. “What else am I supposed to do with myself, Than? Father still doesn’t want me, or the fates don’t permit me to help him, or however the hell that works, and between Mother and Nyx things are more organized here than ever anyway. So since I can’t survive on the surface or visit Olympus, what else am I to do? I continue to fight and attempt my ‘escape’ because otherwise I’d go mad, trapped down here as I am. Hell is the same as it always is, but at least the chambers are never in quite the same order, and the battles never precisely identical.”

“Oh. I… I’m sorry, Zag.”

Zagreus had smiled, then, all his seriousness dropping away. “Don’t be, Than! I like a good fight, you know that. I do well enough.”

“But… Would you like to do something else, then?”

“Perhaps. Achilles still tells me I’m the god of life, you know, as well as the god of blood. He insists that why we’re a pair, life and death and all.” He’d shrugged and laughed again. “I don’t see how I can be when I’ve never so much as set eyes on a living mortal, though. It would be nice… And I loved the feast, having the Olympians visit. If I could visit them… Fate is what it is, though, and I’m bound here.”

Zagreus had nudged Thanatos then, smiling. “You are too, you know! You’ve mentioned that before. All us Cthonic gods are. You die the same as I, up there. Do you feel trapped?”

Thanatos had only been able to smile back. “No, I don’t feel trapped.”

“Well, there you are! You and I can get along down here well enough. And I tend Mother’s garden when I can up there, in the little time I have. It’s enough.”

Thanatos had nodded agreement, yet inside he’d felt as though his heart was breaking. He was indeed trapped here, but not in the same way. He at least got to see more than a single scrap of the upper world. Indeed, he saw nearly all of it, if briefly, as he took the souls of the fate-touched dead. Zagreus had seen nothing beyond his mother’s garden. How unfair was that?

In that moment, Thanatos had felt a stir of determination. If Zagreus was feeling trapped in Hell, Thanatos would find a way to set him free.


	3. Chapter 3

The first thing, Thanatos had decided, was to see what he could discover about how and why the upper world killed Cthonic gods. Given that he himself was a Cthonic god, there seemed one very simple way to begin this. Go up there and stick around long enough to die for once.

He could vaguely remember discovering this problem, back in the days when he’d just been born by Night’s will alone, but those memories were so old and worn they hardly seemed his own, more like a story he’d been told. To be honest, everything before Zagreus’ birth tended to blur together for him, with one day more or less exactly like another.

So he’d appeared at the place where the underworld and the surface met, something that was very easy indeed for him to do, as it was the material equivalent of his own immaterial, liminal realm, a place literally between life and death. Hovering above the snow just past the threshold he’d felt nothing in particular. The air had been cold, chilling his lungs, but he could breathe easily enough and felt no weakness.

After moving perhaps a hundred paces, through a stone doorway that seemed to mark that boundary, he’d found himself beginning to gasp for breath. He’d gone a little further and waited, trying to count out the seconds, to see how much time he—or Zagreus—might have.

It had been awful, slowly dying by inches, struggling to breathe. He’d always hated coming to collect Zagreus’ thread when he died this way, and he’d only ever seen the last second or two of his lover’s struggles. As minutes had dragged on and Thanatos had fought for air, he’d finally been unable to take it. He’d lost complete count of the time, so what was he learning by dying so horribly? He’d found himself standing in the snow, not even having meant to touch the ground. This awfulness seemed to be sapping his power too, or was it only that it had so confused him he had forgotten intending to set down? No, he didn’t want to stand here, he didn’t want to be here at all. He just wanted to escape. Yet his mind wouldn’t focus, he couldn’t think. How… What could he do? Where could he go? He had to get away from this awfulness somehow.

In a haze of dizzy, struggling confusion, Thanatos had done the only thing he could think of, and cut his own thread, letting merciful blackness claim him.

Rising through the red of the Styx, unfamiliar from this point of view, shame had washed over him. How many times had Zagreus died on the surface by now, and he hadn’t been able to handle doing it once? So he’d stalked past Hypnos without even making eye contact, and tried to distract himself with a drink, but of course it had been no use.

Now he floated a hand’s breadth above the snow once again, seeing the spot where he’d fallen marked amid the fresh-laid flakes, and heaved a sigh, breath steaming in the cold air. A short move forward and he’d be outside the reach of whatever mysterious thing protected him, out where the air would seem both too thin and too thick at once.

He shuddered. But he also wanted to know. He’d spent too long not understanding how his own world worked. He’d just gone along, doing his duty, knowing how to cut and carry the threads of life that were souls, but he was surrounded by a thousand mysteries, great and small. Time to start trying to uncover at least one of them.

And he was doing this for Zagreus.

That thought steadied him. With one more deep breath, Thanatos pulled out the hourglass he’d just now fetched from his chambers, and, moving that final distance, flipped it over.

At first it wasn’t that bad. It became immediately harder to breathe, but it was like being a little winded. He found himself panting to compensate for the feeling of reduced air, but that was all. The longer it went, though, the worse it became, and soon he began to gasp, unable to keep from desperately struggling to somehow draw in a proper breath.

Oh, blood and darkness, why was this so hard? It was only a few minutes. Mortals endured this sort of thing all the time when they were sick, and they were so damned fragile. Zagreus had done this countless times by now. He could do it once. He deliberately landed in the snow, trying to steady himself by having his feet on the ground, and held the timer up, staring at it.

There was an almost amusing irony to waiting out his life to the falling sand, given how often mortals associated his own person with the symbol of the hourglass. The one he’d chosen was a simple ten-minute timer, and as the grains ran out, he flipped it over again. That was once.

Holding the timer firmly in one hand and his scythe in the other, he waited, as the feeling of suffocation grew worse and worse. Sand dribbled from top to bottom of the glass, counting out seconds that seemed far too slow. The air was like syrup, so hard to draw in, yet at the same time it was like being atop the highest peaks, where mortals from the lowlands struggled and died. Still, the sand continued to fall, marking off time. 

An awful eternity passed. He flipped the timer again. Twice now. Twenty minutes of torture and growing weakness.

Giving up on standing, Thanatos went to his knees in the snow, and let go his scythe to vanish back into the ether from whence he’d drawn it. He set the timer in front of him, trying to concentrate on watching its falling sand and not thinking about how hard it was to breathe, how horrible it felt to be suffocating by inches.

He found himself clutching at his chest, as if he could somehow push air into his laboring lungs with his hands. Gods on Olympus, this was terrible! He tried to breathe more deeply, to force more air in, and instead doubled over in a fit of coughing. His eyes closed as he shuddered, but he pried them open again after just a moment. He had to watch the timer. Hell, the sand had hardly moved. Not even half an hour. How long was this going to take? Surely it couldn’t be that long? He knew the distance from about where he stood to Demeter’s garden, and it was hardly any distance at all. Zagreus had said he never had much time once he got there. He just had to hold on a little longer.

The sand ran out again, and Thanatos flipped the hourglass again. Three times now. He drew in yet another labored breath, feeling his body trembling. He started seeing sparkles at the edges of his vision. He wasn’t getting enough air. Why? The air here couldn’t be any different from the air just a few steps back, where he’d been fine. None of this made any sense. He’d never questioned it before, things were the way they were, but now that he had begun asking questions, how could the very air be poison to a god? It couldn’t be that, it must be some lack, some radiation from below that he required and now didn’t have. The trouble breathing had to be only a reaction to that lack.

Thanatos gasped, then doubled over again, hands braced on the freezing ground as an intense fit of coughing wracked him. He found he’d coughed up a trace of golden ichor this time, staining the snow beneath him. He wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand, more gold streaked there. The hourglass was nearly empty again. He watched the last of it trickle out, and reached out a trembling hand to flip it again. Forty minutes. How in Hell, and Olympus, and the world between did Zagreus deal with this? He spoke of tending his mother’s garden when he was like this, as though that were a simple thing! Thanatos couldn’t even stand. Hell, he couldn’t even get to his knees properly. His fingers were freezing on the snow-dusted earth, but straightening seemed like lifting a mountain.

The sparkles were growing now, flashes of light and darkness making a gray haze on the edges of his vision. It surely couldn’t be much longer.

He stared at the hourglass, at the slowly sifting sand as his vision narrowed, the rest of the world going away. Another fit of coughs shook him, more of his golden ichor making a shining contrast where it splattered on the white snow. The sand continued to trickle. Thanatos watched the last grains fall, and reached out to turn the hourglass again. His hand shook, and instead he knocked it over. He gasped in another horrible, shallow breath, tried to reach for the glass, but instead collapsed completely in the snow, and finally, finally merciful black closed over him. 

As he emerged from the Styx, though, Thanatos didn’t feel relief. There was one more thing he knew he could discover without needing to ask questions of other gods. But it meant he was going to have to die again.

So he once more summoned his scythe and took himself to where he’d left the hourglass. He snatched it up, trying not to see the golden stains on the snow and the pathetic handprints he’d left bracketing them. Then he vanished again in a flare of light. One more death, and then he’d have to start doing the _hard_ part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I may have mentioned a few places that I'm very mean to Thanatos in this one? Yeah. Very mean, poor guy. It does have a happy ending, though ...eventually.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanatos ticked the metal claws of his gauntlet against the stone railing as he stared out over the familiar, ever-shifting hellscape. His last death had proved that it didn’t matter if he was two steps beyond the underworld’s influence or on the far side of the globe, he got the same roughly an hour either way. That wasn’t much information to buy with such an unpleasant demise, but he’d wanted to gather all he could by himself.

Now, though, he was putting off the next step. He didn’t know enough, so he needed to ask somebody who might know more. Of his fellow Cthonic gods, he could cross Zagreus, Hypnos, and the furies off the list—those three weren’t gods proper in any case—and Charon might or might not know anything but wasn’t going to say much. That left Hades himself, probably Thantos’ last choice, Nyx, better but difficult, and Chaos, definitely worse. He could also perhaps ask Persephone. That seemed like the most pleasant of the available options. Yet still found himself reluctant to do so.

“You must be thinking something very important, Than, I normally can’t sneak up on you like this.”

The laughing voice came with a poke in the ribs that made Thanatos jump and instinctively hover for a moment before realizing it was Zagreus and coming back down. “It’s nothing much,” he said, turning, smiling. However difficult things might be, Zagreus could make him smile like no one else ever had.

“If it’s nothing much, does that mean you’re not busy right now?” Zagreus stepped closer, sliding his arms around Thanatos.

Thanatos chuckled and put one arm around Zagreus in turn, tilting his head down to give Zagreus a brief kiss. “I believe I could be persuaded to put off my work just a little bit longer.”

“Your place, then? Please?”

Thanatos felt himself flushing. Dusa still wouldn’t stop giggling madly every time she saw either of them, after having accidentally overheard the last time he and Zagreus had done something in Zag’s bedroom, and she’d started outright teasing Zagreus about it. That had been that particularly _fun_ encounter with Megaera, too, so there had been a lot to hear.

“Er, yes, my place.” Thanatos tightened his grip on Zagreus and they both vanished in a flash of light, to reappear in Thanatos’ home. No sooner had they arrived than Zagreus kissed him deeply, lifting his hand to the back of Thanatos’ head and holding him in the kiss.

Thanatos hummed into the kiss, letting his eyes close, relaxing. It was always so good to let go, to hand himself over to Zagreus, to be kissed and loved and taken.

Blood and darkness, he would miss this if it ended.

No, he wasn’t going to think about that. He was just going to lose himself in Zagreus.

He let go of his scythe, and Zagreus pulled back from the kiss a moment later, his fingers going to the fastenings of the various bits of armor Thanatos was wearing. By now he knew where every buckle and tie was, and soon had that all off, and his clothing as well. Thanatos cooperated, letting Zagreus undress him, and moved to help when Zagreus started stripping off his own clothing too.

Zagreus kissed him again, demanding and eager, pressing their bodies together. Then he grabbed Thanatos’ hand and tugged towards the bedroom. Thanatos smiled and went willingly. Once there, Zagreus paused and looked over at Thanatos. “Hmm. Feeling like anything in particular just now?” His cheeks were flushed that fascinatingly pink color. 

Thanatos knew his own would no doubt be showing a golden blush, given how heated he felt. “Just you,” he said softly.

“Oh, Than…” Zagreus kissed him again, but sweetly this time. “Here, then, just let me, ah…” He let go of Thanatos and headed for the chest where a few useful supplies were kept. Thanatos climbed into the bed, hesitating for just a moment, then lay down on his stomach there, spreading his feet apart, and looking back over his shoulder as Zagreus returned.

Zagreus had the bottle of oil in one hand, but before uncorking it he climbed into the bed and bent over, his body a warmth against Thanatos’ back, and pressed a soft kiss to the back of his neck. Thanatos felt a shiver go through him, and felt suddenly on the verge of tears. He turned his face to the pillow, so Zagreus wouldn’t see. He couldn’t lose this. He just couldn’t. And yet considering giving up his quest…

No. He would just enjoy this while he could. There was nothing else he could or should do.

He kept his eyes closed, his face turned away, as Zagreus gave the back of his neck another kiss, then sat back and ran his hands down Thanatos’ back to stroke and then squeeze his backside. It was a possessive sort of gesture, which sent a pleasant shiver down Thanatos’ spine. He wanted that, wanted to belong to Zagreus, if only for this moment.

There was a pause, the faint popping sound of a cork being pulled, and then Thanatos felt Zagreus’ fingers pressing between his cheeks, slicked with oil. He sighed, relaxing utterly, welcoming that pleasant invasion.

Zagreus chuckled. “Wow. You feel ready for me already.”

“Mmhmm,” was all Thanatos could manage to say in response.

“Ah, Than…” Zagreus knelt between his legs, fingers stroking within him for just a moment more, then he pulled out and lined his cock up instead.

“Yes,” breathed Thanatos, wanting Zagreus desperately.

With a low moan of pleasure, Zagreus began to sink in. He bent over Thanatos, nipping his shoulder, grinding his hips down until Thanatos had taken every single millimeter of him.

Thanatos let out a wordless sound of bliss, taking Zagreus to the hilt, filled with him.

“Mmm.” Zagreus slipped his arms beneath Thanatos, holding him close, and started moving, his thrusts sensual, gentle, as if he were savoring the moment. Thanatos savored it too, sighing happily, losing himself in pleasure as Zagreus slowly took him.

“Ah, Than…” Zagreus let out a long sigh, his thrusting strong, steady, deep but not insistent. “You feel so good.”

“Yes,” breathed Thanatos, relaxing further into it. It was soft and wonderful, loving and tender and yet his own cock was hard beneath him. It was everything he needed right now, utterly perfect.

With a wordless groan, Zagreus slowly increased his pace, grinding down onto Thanatos with each thrust, his arms holding him tight. “Than… Oh, yes…”

“Zagreus, please,” said Thanatos, not even meaning to, but suddenly wanting more, wanting to bring Zagreus to that peak of bliss. He clenched down, tensing. “Please, take me…”

“Yes!” Zagreus began thrusting faster still, bent over Thanatos, panting hard. “Oh, yes, Than. Oh…!” His face was pressed to the crook of Thanatos’ neck as he thrust rapidly, sinking as deep as possible with each stroke. 

It was intense and wonderful, and Thanatos lost himself in it, clenching as hard as he could. “Zagreus… Ohgods… Oh, please.” Thanatos heard his voice coming out high and breathy. He couldn’t possibly be ashamed of that, though. He wanted Zagreus so desperately, wanted to give his love pleasure, wanted to be filled by him, wanted that intimacy and connection. He needed it, intensely, fiercely.

“Fuck, Than… Yes… Ohyes!” Zagreus was suddenly thrusting roughly, almost painfully, breath coming in rapid gasps, and a moment later he thrust in once more and came hard, body shuddering as he emptied himself into Thanatos.

“Ah! Oh, Zagreus,” moaned Thanatos, overwhelmed by it, beyond bliss himself to have pleased his love. It was everything he’d wanted, in a sudden jolt of pleasure that couldn’t have been equaled by Artemis herself. It didn’t even matter if he himself came or not, but Zagreus, always loving, always caring, slipped his hand beneath Thanatos, finding his cock, curling his fingers around it, even as the last shudders of his own orgasm finished.

“Mmm. Your turn,” he murmured, and his hand began stroking insistently.

Thanatos was so wound up, so adrift in pleasure, that he came almost instantly, his seed spilling out beneath him, staining his bed. “Ah, Zagreus!” he gasped. And then, unable to keep from saying it, though part of him felt it was foolishness, “I love you!”

He heard Zagreus’ breath catch, and he replied, “Oh, Thanatos, yes, I love you so much.”

Zagreus ground his hips down again, sinking as deeply as possible into Thanatos, the slickness of his seed filling him. Thanatos shivered, eyes unfocused, mind hazed with warm, loving bliss. It was beyond sexual satisfaction, it was perfection, better than ambrosia, better than anything. He wanted to weep as his traitor mind reminded him someday this might end, might never happen again. Oh gods on Olympus above, he didn’t want it to ever end. He loved Zagreus so very much.

Tears gathered in his eyes again, and he felt his body shuddering as he suddenly was holding back sobs.

“Thanatos?” said Zagreus gently. “Are you okay?” His cock still rested within Thanatos, though it was softening, and his arms were still warm and tight around Thanatos.

“I… I’m fine. I just… Gods, I love you. You’re so good. Truly you are. I don’t deserve you.”

“Than!” Zagreus held him tighter. “Don’t say that. You’re good too. You’re wonderful.”

Thanatos felt tears trickling down his cheeks, and couldn’t even find a response. He just trembled beneath Zagreus, overcome with love, and fear, and his own inadequacy. Yet it was so wonderful, so good, that love was the uppermost of those. It might all end soon, and he would mourn that, but the tears that seeped from him were as much happy as sad. “Oh, Zagreus. It’s okay. I just… I really do love you so much.”

Zagreus kissed the back of his neck fervently. “You’re perfect, Thanatos, and I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still being mean to poor Than, a little, but he gets a break here.


	5. Chapter 5

“Thanatos, dear. Is there something I can do for you?”

“I hope so, my lady.” Thanatos gave Persephone a small bow. She was petting Cerberus, who lounged next to Hades’ desk, but the god of the underworld himself wasn’t present. Probably off fighting Zagreus again. He seemed to actually enjoy doing so these days.

Persephone laughed. “You don’t need to bow to me! You’re practically my son-in-law, after all.”

Thanatos smiled, and tried not to let any sadness slip into it. “You are nevertheless my Queen. But… I was hoping you could help me solve a puzzle. I am trying to discover why Chtonic gods cannot tolerate the world above.”

“Planning an outing, hmm?” Persephone smiled.

“It would be pleasant to be able to visit your garden without dying in it, my lady.”

Persephone’s smile faded to sadness. “It would be, yes. It would be wonderful if you, and Hades, and Zagreus could all come there. Zagreus especially… He’s never even seen Olympus, and though I don’t miss most of the gods there, it’s still his heritage.”

Thanatos nodded. “Indeed. I am not only asking for my own sake.”

“Unfortunately, I have no idea. Hades himself might, but he refuses to discuss it. I think it’s something of a sore spot for him, that he isn’t as free as his brothers. But I don’t know if that’s because he’s jealous of them, or because of how and why it’s so. Asking only upsets him, though.”

Thanatos nodded. “I assumed as much, which is why I approached you first.”

“Have you asked Nyx yet? I don’t even know if she suffers from the same trouble.”

“As far as I know she does, but I haven’t asked. Mother can be…difficult. She is my next resort, after you, unless someone on Olympus might know?”

Persephone frowned thoughtfully. “If anyone there does, it would be Athena, I think. She’s the only one of the lot of them who truly values knowledge.”

“Thank you, my lady.” Thanatos bowed again. “I suppose that means I should be off to Olympus.”

“Oh.” Persephone looked at him, startled. “But… You’re Cthonic too, Thanatos, dear. Surely…”

“I can be there swiftly and return as swiftly, my lady. I must travel the whole of the world in the course of my duties, after all. Have no fear for me. And thank you again.”

“Take care then.” Persephone smiled, and to Thanatos’ surprise, leaned in and placed a swift kiss on his cheek. He blinked at her, and she gave a little laugh, and said, “You make my son very happy, you know. So thank you, too.”

“I, ah, you’re quite welcome, my lady.” Feeling his cheeks flush, and also feeling a confused mixture of happiness and dismay, Thanatos vanished, and re-appeared outside the gates of Olympus. 

He could count on his fingers the times he’d been here, and have fingers left. Gods seldom died, Zagreus very much to the contrary, and mortals came here seldom as well.

The gates were shut, and there was somebody, some godling Thanatos didn’t recognize, guarding them. The god, whose windswept cloak suggested she might be one of the Anemoi, was staring at Thanatos with wide, startled eyes.

“I have need to speak with the Lady Athena, and I have no time to wait on pleasantries. May I enter?”

“Ah, may you…? That is, are you, uhm… May I ask who…?”

“Thanatos, Lord of Death,” snapped Thanatos impatiently, already feeling short of breath.

“Oh! Y-yes, enter, Lord Thanatos,” stammered the godling, and the gates swung open.

Thanatos, knowing he was being rude, but not able to bring himself to care as time trickled away like it was once more pouring through an hourglass, strode briskly through them.

He knew how to find a soul, when he sought one, that was part of what his scythe did, why it bore an eye of sight. That was how he could always find Zagreus when he needed to. Fortunately Thanatos remembered Athena’s essence well enough to go directly to her. Unfortunately Olympus was a spacious place, and he used up far too much of his precious time walking through it. Yet he knew traveling by his power here would disturb the energies of the place, draw attention, and be a horrible breach of etiquette.

Athena was in the courtyard of a palatial home, whose owl motifs and severe design suggested it was hers. Lungs laboring, though he tried to hide it, Thanatos strode up to her and gave a deep but swift bow. “Forgive my rude interruption, Lady Athena, but I am here on an errand of some urgency, and my time is short.”

With the faintest possible expression of mild surprise, Athena looked up from the scroll she’d been writing. “Thanatos. What is this urgent matter?”

“Do you know anything, anything at all about why it is that Cthonic gods cannot survive outside of Hell?”

Athena gave him a swift, appraising look and said, “I know nothing. I suspect a few things, but the information I have is…confused.”

“Please, tell me. As briefly as you can?” Thanatos managed to hold back a desperate gasp and breathe almost normally. Blood and darkness, he felt so weak now. He should have traveled directly, much as that might upset some gods. He had used most of his time already.

“Of course.” Athena nodded. “In brief, then. I once believed it was the direct influence of Chaos, which brought life to the Cthonic gods, that caused this trouble. The world above has too much of order in it. However, Hades himself is not of Chaos. I thought perhaps that in binding himself to Hell he had also forged a bond of some sort with the primal realm below. But discovering Zagreus makes this theory difficult, as he should have no such bond, yet he suffers the same effect. In short, I know nothing. Ask Chaos. Ask Hades. Ask Zagreus, even.”

“Uhng.” Thanatos drew in a labored breath. “Th-thank you, Lady Athena.” He doubled over with a sudden coughing fit, struggling to summon his power and leave. _Damn._

“Thanatos… I cannot send you home, I am sorry.” Athena’s stern features softened.

He wanted to thank her again, but instead he collapsed to his knees in another fit of coughing, golden ichor dripping from his stained lips onto the paving stones below. He scrambled for the energy to teleport, couldn’t find it, and finally once again cut his own thread, letting the blackness of death take him away, as he himself had taken so many before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still being mean to poor Than. Authors are the worst!


	6. Chapter 6

Thanatos wearily climbed the steps up out of the Styx, shaking blood from himself. That had been unpleasant. Yet again.

Even as he reached the top he felt the call of a fated thread fraying. A familiar thread, in a familiar place. Zagreus, in his mother’s garden again.

“Blood and darkness,” groaned Thanatos, tempted to just let it wait a while, so he wouldn’t have to watch Zagreus die again. But no, that would be cowardly. Feeling deeply weary, though the Styx had of course restored his body, Thanatos summoned his power and took himself to the garden.

He appeared behind Zagreus, who was on his knees next to a garden bed. Thanatos’ lover wasn’t merely doubled over, though, he was moving with steady purpose, hands shaking, breath impossibly labored, but undeterred by either as he picked up small particles—seeds, Thanatos realized—one by one and pushed them into the soft soil, then smoothed the earth over above each. The last seed fell from his hand, though, as he collapsed completely, his thread cut.

With a shudder of sympathy Thanatos gathered up Zagreus’ soul and returned it to the Styx, in a way both metaphorical and, this time, literal, he himself appearing once again at the top of the steps just moments before the prince of Hell climbed up out of the crimson waters.

Zagreus ran his hand through his hair, shaking the last drops of blood from it, and grinned. “A successful run!” He suddenly noticed Thanatos, and waved. “Oh, hey, Than! What’s up?”

Thanatos stared at Zagreus’ smiling face, and suddenly couldn’t help himself. “How do you do it?” burst out of him, without him even meaning to say it.

“Huh?” Zagreus tilted his head to the side like a puzzled puppy.

“How do you die like that and then just brush it off and smile? How do you plant seeds while you’re suffocating! How do you do this over and over and over, almost every day, and not go mad? I could barely stand doing it just—” Thanatos halted, suddenly biting his tongue. Damn. He shouldn’t have said that.

“You?” Zagreus blinked at Thanatos. “I thought you just, you know, nipped up there, grabbed a soul real quick and came right back. How come you’re dying up there? What are you doing? How many times have you died?”

“I… Ah…” Thanatos tried to think of some excuse, some explanation. He didn’t want to discuss what he was doing. He’d have to tell Zagreus eventually, if he succeeded, but dangling freedom in front of him and snatching it back _again_ would be too cruel.

“Twice,” broke in a familiar voice, though the grim tone was less familiar. “Or maybe four times, if the two where he _killed himself_ were up there too.”

Thanatos gave Hypnos a glare.

“Than!” said Zagreus, sounding shocked. “What the hell? You killed yourself? Why? What’s going on?”

“I still also,” noted Hypnos, staring at his brother, “would really like to know why you keep killing Zagreus. That one has happened seven times now. Seven times!”

Thanatos felt his cheeks go instantly gold in a mortified flush. “Ah…”

Zagreus cleared his throat. He was also blushing that fascinating pink color, as he said, “Hypnos? Trust me on this one, you _don’t_ want to know. Anyhow, that one shouldn’t be happening again.” Thanatos saw Zagreus half-roll his eyes, knew he was still upset that his father had forbade Thanatos from killing him, though hopefully Hades didn’t know exactly why he had been doing so either. “The other, though…” said Zagreus worriedly, “Than, what’s going on? I think that if you’ve been killing yourself, I ought to know the reason why.”

“I…” Thanatos looked between their two curious, worried faces, and felt a twist of guilty shame. He was trying to do something good, he hadn’t meant to hurt or worry either his brother or his lover. “I’m sorry. I’ll explain if I can someday, but I can’t right now. I… I’m sorry.” Then he gripped his scythe and vanished, fleeing before they could ask him any further questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one today.
> 
> The bit about being forbidden from killing Zagreus references events in both Red Ambrosia and in my Patrochilles/Zag fic Taking Advantage. These stories so far are all the "same" Zagreus. (Except maybe The Champion's Fiendish Brat, not sure about that one.)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: *sorta* incest? I mean, it's greek gods and also it's Chaos, so the sex isn't...*sex* as such, but????

“Gods, I am such a coward.” Thanatos lay on his back on his bed, still fully dressed, though he had at least let go of his scythe. He put one arm over his face, as if to blot out the universe and all the problems there. At least none of them could come bother him here. But they’d still be waiting when he emerged from his liminal realm.

The tug of a thread caught at him, but thank all the gods, it wasn’t Zagreus again. He made the trip to the mortal world swiftly, did his duty, and returned home again. Standing in the atrium of his peculiar house, he tapped the claws of his gauntlet against the handle of his scythe and considered. It was tempting to take a nap, put off doing anything further. A wash of sorrow went over him when he remembered the time he’d forced Zagreus to rest, the time they’d fallen asleep in this same bed together… The first time they’d made love together. Zagreus wasn’t here now to hold him as he slept, though.

“Ugh.” Gripping the scythe more tightly, Thanatos decided he might as well keep going. He was tired, but not so tired he was a danger to himself.

He vanished again, reappearing in the House of Hades, though that wasn’t his destination. He was bound for one of the few places he couldn’t visit in an instant, for it was a place where death—and life, for that matter—could hold no sway.

The Eldest Sigil lit with a crimson glow as Thanatos stepped forward. He braced himself. Gods were not truly meant to visit Chaos, not even those born second-hand of it like himself. His mother Nyx might go to her parent’s realm freely, but it would cost him something to visit, he knew. Zagreus paid for his visits in blood and pain. What Chaos might take from the god of death Thanatos didn’t know, but whatever the price was, he was willing to pay it.

He just hoped he wasn’t going to die again.

Entering Chaos wasn’t painful. It was disorienting, his sense of the world above and its countless threads, endlessly being spun and cut, vanished, but there was no pain, and no feeling of loss of power. Apparently merely visiting here was easier for him than for Zagreus.

He hovered just above a floor, with pillars all around, the ceiling above immaterial. Yet it was all immaterial, even though he knew he could lower himself to stand on that floor if he wanted. None of it was real. It was, but it also was not. He drew in a bracing breath, and felt an odd rush fill him. The air was electric, somehow. Or not the air itself, though it entered him with his breath, but some essence surrounding him.

“Welcome, grandson.”

The being that existed in front of him, as if it had always been there, was as unreal as everything else. Or perhaps it was real, and he was not. Thanatos drew in another breath, and nearly laughed, feeling a giddy rush. “Greetings, ancestor.”

“What brings the god of death to my realm?” The voice was as unreal-too-real as everything else, yet it suddenly reminded Thanatos of his mother, of the echo of otherness she’d always had.

“I’m here in search of knowledge. Specifically about why Cthonic gods, including Zagreus, die in the world above.”

Things crawled like a hallucination over Chaos, their face having no expression and every expression at once. “I see. And what will you pay, in return for this boon?”

“Ah…”

“It is not a boon such as I have granted your opposite, but it may be that knowledge is more valuable than mere combat prowess.”

“Er…” Opposite? If Chaos said it, then it probably was true, and Zagreus really was the god of life as well as the god of blood. “What is it you want? I’m afraid I don’t really know what’s customary in these cases.” Gods, it was hard to think. He felt dizzy. In a good way, but still, it was distracting. It was like having had too much nectar.

“The nature of my price is different for each. From your opposite I generally take blood and pain. From you… Life, I believe.”

Thanatos wanted to sigh, suddenly. “Ah. So I get to die again.”

Chaos laughed. The sound shook everything. No, it was that everything danced joyfully for a moment. Thanatos wanted to laugh with them, even though he still felt uncertain and annoyed at the idea of dying again.

“No, grandson. I do not mean I want your life in that sense. I want your life in the sense of generative life, in the sense of a seed of order, a thing difficult for me to come by here. I am told that giving such is considered pleasant by both gods and mortals.”

Thanatos frowned for a moment, puzzled. Generative…seed? 

Oh. 

“Ah… Er…”

“Is such a bargain acceptable to you, grandson?”

Thanatos frowned. He still felt weirdly high as he tried to think through this. At least he didn’t have to worry on Zagreus’ account, they’d had the discussion about how open or closed they’d wanted to be early on, given Zagreus’ relationship with Megaera, and Thanatos’ occasional similar dalliances. But the idea of fucking his grandfather was a little off-putting, and the idea of fucking Chaos Incarnate was downright terrifying. On the other hand, Chaos had seemed to promise that the experience would be pleasant. And he needed to know more.

So he nodded and said, “Yes, it is.”

“Then I will give you the answer to your question, as best I know it, first. For I believe you will not be in a state to recall it after.”

“Er…” Thanatos felt his stomach do a nervous flip. Oh hell.

“It is the balance between Chaos and Order, grandson. I am of pure chaos. My children are of mixed chaos and order. My grand-children such as yourself have more of order, yet chaos fuels you, at your core. Chaos fuels all life, yet in the surface world life carries the merest spark of it, a candle’s flame. You, however, depend on a greater reservoir of that energy. Bringing anything of the ordered world within you disrupts that balance and breaks your fragile lives, thus you die. In Hell you lie alongside Chaos, and its energy permeates you, keeping that balance intact, though I know that for my child of Night it is a trial and a lessening of her powers. It is good that she can visit here, where the equal balance is best suited to her. For you there is perhaps a little too much chaos here, but it should do you no harm in the short term.”

Thanatos blinked. “Here is balanced?”

Chaos chuckled, and the universe quaked. “Indeed, grandson. If this were pure chaos it would kill you even more swiftly than the ordered world above. This place lies between. I may reach here with an avatar, but not my full self, for Chaos is me, and I am it.”

Thanatos gasped, giddily pleased to have figured it out. “Oh! This is a liminal realm, like mine!”

“Precisely, grandson.”

“But… If it’s chaos and order, what about Zagreus? He shouldn’t have any chaos! He’s the son of two Olympians, even if one of them has been bound to a more chaotic realm.”

“He has visited here, and I have sensed that he is as much of Chaos as you, my grandson. I do not know why, though. For that you must seek elsewhere, I tell you only what I know. Yet seek, and you shall find.”

Thanatos huffed. He hadn’t really learned anything new. Though he supposed that a better explanation and a confirmation of Athena’s theory was of some use. Perhaps Chaos had given him an oracle, too, in saying that he would find. It would have to do, he supposed.

“Now, let us consummate our deal.”

“Ah… Okay.”

“I shall be gentle with you, grandson.”

Thanatos swallowed hard. “I hope so. Er. Should I, ah, do anything?”

“That will not be required, no.”

“I—” Thanatos gasped, interrupted by a rush of sensation. It was like something was crawling up his every nerve, trying out every possible feeling. Cold and hot and pain and pleasure and tickling touches and itching and… “Oh, g-gods!”

The sensations shifted, the less pleasant ones fading, pleasure itself—but a shiver of pain entwined with it—coming to the fore. It seemed to ooze through Thanatos’ body, moving from his extremities to his core, and some of it lingered there, his cock hardening, his clothing somehow dissolving to unreality and freeing it. “F-f-fuck!”

Thanatos shuddered helplessly, overwhelmed, but Chaos wasn’t done with him yet, for the pleasure also burned up his spine, and through his mind suddenly flashed a series of swift partial memories, moments when he’d felt sexual pleasure before, from the last time he’d had sex with Zagreus to his own first curious fumblings when he’d been barely incarnated and the earth itself new. “Ah… Oh, fuck… Ah… Ah… Ha…” He couldn’t keep from making sounds, though he could hardly hear them, his senses were on fire, his body unreal, his mind a maze of pleasure, past and present. It built to an intolerable intensity, making Thanatos think he might die of it after all, and then with a spasm that seemed to wrack his very soul he came.

“Ah!” It was a scream as much as a cry of pleasure, his nerves overstimulated, too much, too good, too all at once. His cock pulsed and twitched for a wonderful, terrible, awful eternity as he floated just above the unreal ground of chaos.

Then, suddenly, it was over, and Thanatos couldn’t help but come to rest on the floor, feet touching something that was and wasn’t there, his breath coming fast, his mind dazed and giddy. “Oh… Fuck…”

“Thank you, grandson,” said Chaos, though Thanatos couldn’t see them anymore, and the voice seemed to be reaching him by something other than his ears. “I will send you back to where you belong, now.”

Thanatos was just conscious enough to feel an energy like that he used to travel himself, though also different, and the liminal realm of chaos vanished, to be replaced by Zagreus’ bedroom.

_Where I belong, he thought_ , still giddy and dazed and entirely overcome. _Wow, I’m glad my clothes seem to be real again_ , was his next thought as Zagreus spun from where he’d been standing in front of his mirror.

“Than! What…?”

Then Thanatos had no more thoughts, for the world faded away as he collapsed to the floor of Zagreus’ room in a dead faint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was brainstorming what Chaos would ask as a price with friends, and the very first thing anybody said was "it's fanfiction, it's going to be sex!"
> 
> ...they were right.
> 
> :D
> 
> (Also, if anybody wonders why Zag doesn't seem to get high as a kite visiting Chaos, I figure the quarter-mortal thing steadies him somehow?)


	8. Chapter 8

Thanatos was distantly aware of somebody shaking his shoulder, of a voice calling his name. The voice was important. He had to answer it. He managed to pry his eyelids open and saw Zagreus’ worried face peering down at him. He was on his back in Zagreus’ bedroom.

“Than! Are you okay? What happened?”

“‘M okay. More than okay. Hahaha! Ohfuck. Can’t believe that just happened. Wow.”

“…Uh. Than? Are you drunk?”

“Drunk on too much chaos! You could take me up above, get some order, sober me up! Hah! Oh, wait gods, no, don’t do that. I hate it up there. I hate dying like that. It’s horrible. I don’t know how you do it, I really don’t.”

“Than…” Zagreus still looked worried.

Thanatos tried to reach up to him, but could barely lift his hand. He let it fall, finding he was suddenly shivering, trembling almost violently. “How do you do it, Zag? You’re so much stronger than me. You’re so much better than me. I don’t know why you want to be with me. It never made any sense.”

Zagreus looked distressed, his hands clasping the one of Thanatos’ that wasn’t covered in a gauntlet. “Than! Don’t say things like that.”

“Sorry. Sorry. Sorry for this whole mess. I’m trying to help, really I am. So sorry.” Suddenly he wasn’t shaking anymore, but was tearing up, feeling like he wanted to sob.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Thanatos felt a hand stroking his hair, and he let his eyes slide closed again.

“You’re so good. Love you, Zag. Gotta do this, though. I’m sorry.”

“Than, what’s going on? What’s wrong? You’re scaring me here.”

Thanatos tried to pry his eyes open again, but couldn’t. He mumbled, “It’s okay. I’ll be okay. Just gotta rest a while, let my balance recover. I’ll be okay. I’m so sorry, Zag. So sorry…” Then everything went away again.


	9. Chapter 9

Thanatos’ next awakening was much more pleasant. He drifted slowly up from sleep, aware of softness and warmth, and found he’d been undressed and tucked into Zagreus’ bed. Not only that, but Zagreus was spooned up behind him, his breath warm on the back of Thanatos’ neck.

As he stirred, Zagreus immediately did too, kissing the back of his neck softly. “Than? You okay now?”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. And thanks.”

“Can you tell me what happened to you?”

Thanatos drew in a breath. “I visited Chaos. And made a deal with them. It took a lot out of me.”

“Oh. Yeah, they don’t let you have anything without paying for it. You’re okay now, though?”

“I think so. I really am sorry for scaring you.”

“Eh. I’m sure I’ve scared you a time or two. But… Can you tell me anything else, Than? You’re doing something, and all this business with going to the surface and dying and killing yourself… It worries me.”

Thanatos sighed. “I… I don’t want to hurt you, Zagreus. I… Ugh. I don’t know.”

“Than. Thanatos. If you can’t tell me, I’ll trust that whatever you’re doing has a good reason. I just don’t want to see you hurt yourself, either.”

“I promise I’ll tell you as soon as I can.”

“Then that’s good enough.” Zagreus kissed the back of his neck again.

Thanatos shuddered, feeling tears gather in his eyes. “Gods, Zag… You really are too good for me.”

“Oh, don’t say that. That’s nonsense. I love you, Than.”

Thanatos sucked in a sharp breath, never able to keep from being stunned by that. “Zag… I love you too.” He rolled over and kissed Zagreus, putting his arm over him and clinging to him. Zagreus kissed back deeply, holding Thanatos tight.

Soon Zagreus had rolled Thanatos over, pinning him down as he kissed hotly, passionately, the blankets tangled around them. Thanatos wrapped his arms around Zagreus, kissing back, wanting to cling to him with all his strength.

Zagreus hummed into the kiss, that soft sound of pleasure thrilling through Thanatos. His body was a warm weight on Thanatos, his tongue demanding as it quested into Thanatos’ mouth. Thanatos found himself gripping Zagreus’ shoulders, moaning into the kiss and squirming beneath him. He could feel his cock beginning to harden, his pulse racing faster, as Zagreus kissed him hotly. Then Zagreus broke off the kiss to nuzzle along the line of Thanatos’ jaw to the base of his ear, where he nibbled lightly.

“Ah…” It was half a sigh and half a moan, a long exhalation of pure pleasure at the touch of Zagreus’ teeth.

Zagreus nipped down the side of Thanatos’ neck, teeth scraping there, and pressed a kiss at that sweet spot where neck and shoulder met. “Mmm. Sometimes I wonder what you’d taste like if I could bite you the way you bite me.”

“Gods, Zag, if you want to taste me, you can,” said Thanatos fervently.

Zagreus chuckled, and said, “I don’t have the fangs for it. I’d have to stop this and go get something to cut you with, and right now the last thing I want to do is stop this.”

He bit in again, roughly, and Thanatos moaned helplessly, his nails digging into Zagreus’ shoulders. He wanted to say something, to beg Zagreus to somehow taste the golden ichor in his veins, to ask for more pain even if his lover’s blunt teeth couldn’t break skin, but all he could come up with were incoherent moans.

Zagreus ground his hips down on Thanatos, the hot hardness of his cock more than evident, through the thin fabric of their underthings.

“Ah, Zag…”

“Yeah.” Breathless, Zagreus rolled off of Thanatos and stripped his undershorts off. Thanatos did the same, feeling flushed and needy.

Zagreus immediately pounced on him. “Even if I can’t have your blood, Than, I want to have _you_.”

Thanatos shivered, a thousand things hovering on his tongue, none of them able to come out. He let out a whimper, his arms wrapping around Zagreus again, and managed a breathless “Yes!”

Zagreus nipped Thanatos’ neck again, sharply, then nibbled at his collarbone, and placed nips mixed with kisses down from there. He made his way to one of Thanatos’ nipples, first kissing, then tonguing it, then nipping it. Thanatos gasped, finding he’d put a hand on the back of Zagreus’ head without really having meant to. He twisted his fingers through the dark, untidy strands of it as Zagreus nipped and sucked at him, sending alternating spikes of pleasure and pain through him.

Thanatos was squirming and panting, even more wound up than he had been, by the time Zagreus began to move down again, placing nips and kisses down Thanatos’ belly.

“Ah… Zagreus…” Thanatos tensed in anticipating, panting even faster.

Zagreus made a little humming sound of pleasure, continuing his slow downward path. He reached the base of Thanatos’ cock and planted a kiss just there before pausing. Thanatos let out a needy whimper, his hand moving restlessly in Zagreus’ hair. Zagreus laughed softly, warm breath washing over Thanatos, then kissed slowly up the length of his cock.

“Oh, gods, Zag,” gasped Thanatos at the contact.

“Mmm,” hummed Zagreus, warmly, kissing the head of Thanatos’ cock again, before lapping at it, tongue gathering up the pre that had slicked it.

“Oh!” Thanatos cried out helplessly, fingers digging deeper into Zagreus’ hair, his head tipped back as he trembled in pleasure. Another cry, a low, blissful moan, escaped him as Zagreus took Thanatos’ cock into his mouth, sinking easily down on it.

Then he was reduced to wordless moans as Zagreus moved expertly on his cock, knowing exactly what he liked, exactly how best to bring him pleasure. It didn’t take long at all for Thanatos to be on the edge, tensing, trying to not pull Zagreus’ hair too hard, but finding his whole body trembling as he felt his pleasure building. He cried, “Oh, Zagreus!” as he came, pleasure flashing into a lava-heat that couldn’t help but burst from him, his seed pumping into Zagreus’ mouth. The prince swallowed it down eagerly, making soft, muffled sounds of pleasure as he did.

Eventually Zagreus lifted his head with a contented sigh, and scooted up to lie alongside Thanatos, nestling against him. “Mmm. That was very nice.”

Thanatos was still hazed with pleasure, but he was coherent enough to frown as he looked over at Zagreus. “You’re done?” He glanced down at the prince’s cock, which was pressed now against Thanatos’ hip, but not in any insistent way, simply there. “Shouldn’t I, ah…”

“Than, making love is not a purchase from Charon,” said Zagreus with a smile. “I’m quite content. Unless you _want_ more?”

Thanatos knew Zagreus was right, but he also knew he himself wouldn’t be happy without having given Zagreus pleasure in return. “I think I do.”

“Oh, well then! Ah… Shall I go get the oil?”

Thanatos nodded. “Yeah.”

Zagreus jumped out of the bed with his usual boundless energy, making Thanatos smile after him. And for once Thanatos himself wasn’t exhausted. Zagreus rummaged around the bedroom clutter for what seemed like an unusually long time before coming back to the bed. Thanatos just managed to notice that while he had the little bottle in one hand, there was something glinting in the other before Zagreus pounced on him, the hand with the bottle pushing Thanatos’ shoulder back to the bed, but the other touching the sharp point of a small knife to his throat.

“Oh, gods!” gasped Thanatos, going perfectly still save for his rapid panting.

“Still willing to let me have a taste, Than?” said Zagreus, grinning, an almost evil mischief sparkling in both eyes. Or maybe the green one was mischievous and the red one was evil. Whatever the look was, it had Thanatos’ heart pounding.

“Y-yes,” said Thanatos.

Zagreus’ expression softened. “Thank you.” He sat back, settling himself astride Thanatos’ waist, and tossed the bottle of oil onto the bed beside him. Then he reached out and caressed down the side of Thanatos’ neck, fingers stroking gently. Thanatos tipped his head to the side, still breathing fast.

Zagreus touched the knife there again, not a grinning threat now, for his expression was sober, careful. His eyes were intent as he dug the tip in, making Thanatos gasp, then flicked it across, leaving a short, shallow cut behind. It barely hurt, but Thanatos let out a soft whimper all the same.

“Wow…” Zagreus’ eyes went wide, and he set the blade aside, then immediately drew his fingers over the cut, bringing them away smeared with gold. “I thought… I mean… I haven’t seen you bleed before. I thought it would just be yellow. It’s actually gold.”

Thanatos shivered, having a hard time forming words. He’d always been so fascinated by Zagreus’ blood, but somehow Zagreus having his was at least as intense. Zagreus lifted his hand, lapping the golden ichor from his fingers. He made a low sound of pleasure, his eyes going half-lidded. “Fuck. I see why you like this sort of thing. Though it tastes strange.”

“I… I imagine it would,” managed Thanatos.

Zagreus bent over, pressing his body to Thanatos, and ran his tongue over the cut with a soft moan. “Gods.” 

Thanatos could feel Zagreus’ cock, hard against his belly, and he brought his hands up to hold Zagreus, feeling strangely overwhelmed as his lover tasted him. “Zagreus…” Please… Can you… I need you.”

“Yes,” growled Zagreus, and he rolled off of Thanatos to snatch up the bottle of oil. He hastily coated his hands in it, one going to his own cock and slicking it, the other reaching to Thanatos, who eagerly lifted and spread his legs, offering himself. Zagreus pushed two fingers in without hesitation, knowing Thanatos could take it, and began twisting them, stretching him. Only just for a moment, though, before lining up his cock. His hands, still oil-slick, gripped Thanatos’ legs, pulling them apart and up. “Ready?” he said, his gaze crackling with an almost feral need as he looked at Thanatos.

“Yes, _please_ ,” said Thanatos breathlessly. Zagreus almost never got like this, he was usually a more careful and considerate lover, but when he let loose it was beyond arousing. Giving himself utterly to Zagreus’ primal desire was the best thing Thanatos could imagine just now.

Zagreus gave him just that, thrusting in full with a single stroke, and not pausing for even a moment to let Thanatos adjust, only pulling back and slamming in again, taking him with a rapid, rough urgency.

“Ah! Oh, Zag!” Thanatos locked his legs around Zagreus’ waist, clinging to him as his lover pounded into him. Zagreus bent over Thanatos, and sucked at the cut on his neck again, sending a flicker of stinging pain through him. Thanatos moaned and gripped Zagreus’ shoulders hard, clinging to him, overcome by a pleasure that was tangled in pain, and loving both.

Zagreus seemed utterly lost, making low sounds as he took Thanatos hard. He bit the spot where he’d been sucking, making Thanatos cry out, and thrust even harder, his strokes becoming jerky, uneven, his breath hot in Thanatos’ ear as he neared his peak.

“Ah… Ha… Than…” Zagreus was breathing hard, his voice a low growl as he said, “ _My_ Thanatos…”

“Z-Zagreus!” gasped Thanatos, what his lover had just said going through him in such a rush that he wasn’t even focused on the sensation as Zagreus thrust in again and came with a cry.

Zagreus slowly relaxed atop him, giving a long, contented sigh, and Thanatos echoed it, the wonder of “my Thanatos” still echoing through him. Maybe he wouldn’t lose Zagreus. Maybe they could somehow stay together after all. It felt dangerous to even hope for that, but he wanted it so badly.

Eventually Zagreus climbed off of Thanatos, who would have been content to lie there forever, he felt. “Sadly, I have work to do, and I’m sure you do too,” said Zagreus, stretching.

Thanatos managed somehow to pry himself upright. “Yes, unfortunately.” Indeed he could feel several souls that needed collecting, which wasn’t surprising given how much had happened since he’d last attended to his duties. As he got cleaned up and dressed, Thanatos felt a renewed sense of determination. He had hope that things would work out for him, but however that went, he was going to make it work out for Zagreus.


	10. Chapter 10

“Greetings, my child.” Nyx smiled up at Thanatos from where she sat in Persephone’s underworld garden. “Come, sit and speak with me, if you would.”

“Of course, Mother.” Thanatos seated himself on the soft grass beside her.

“Chaos says you have been to visit them. May I ask the reason for that visit?” His mother’s eyes seemed to bore into Thanatos, and he remembered all over again why he’d been putting off speaking with her. Nyx could be incredibly kind, and incredibly loving, but she also had a way of seeing right through things. She always knew what Thanatos was up to.

“I… You may ask, mother. I am seeking a way to free Zagreus. You know how he still chafes at being trapped here in the underworld.”

“I do. Yet he bears up under it well, and I know of no way to change his nature.”

“How can it be his nature, Mother? He’s the son of two Olympians. I might consider his father’s bond to Hell heritable if Zagreus were his heir, but he’s not.”

“That is my doing, my child.”

Thanatos blinked at Nyx. “Yours?”

“Zagreus is, as you said, a child of two Olympians. Grown gods, full in their power, may venture from the surface realm to our domain, and survive. Those, like Persephone, with some mortal nature, may even thrive here. And those such as Hades, with a bond to the place as well. But Zagreus was an infant, and the nature of this realm killed him. I could not revive him without doing something to make him compatible with the energies here.”

“His balance was wrong. Between chaos and order,” said Thanatos.

“Indeed, my child.”

“So you…did something.”

“I tried many things, and all failed, until I bound him to the Styx.”

“Ah.” Suddenly a great many things began to come clear.

“He is a god with two aspects now. I believe he would originally have been only a god of life, had he been born on Olympus. But I bound him to blood, and pulled him from the Styx that first time, when he was only an infant.”

“You can’t unbind him now?” asked Thanatos.

Nyx shook her head. “I believe it would kill him. And my child… If it did not in that moment, Zagreus is accustomed to be shall we say…intimate with death.” She gave him a small smile, and Thanatos almost laughed. “He is very likely to shortly get himself killed with his usual reckless nature, and without the binding, his soul would be adrift. I cannot even venture to think how we might get him back, even should you find and claim his soul.”

Thanatos nodded. “That gives me a full picture of the situation, I think. I suppose I should have simply spoken to you first. Forgive me, Mother.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, my child. I know you like to find your own way in life.”

“Sometimes to a fault.” Thanatos sighed. “I feel I’m no closer to a solution than I was before, though. If Zagreus is bound here, and has a chaotic nature, I can’t think of any way to set him free. I almost want to be glad of that. I…” Tearing sorrow welled up in Thanatos again, as if his heart was being pulled in pieces. He wanted Zagreus to stay so badly, and yet it _hurt_ to see him putting a brave face on being trapped.

“What is it, my child?” said Nyx gently. Thanatos almost didn’t want to answer. This was half the reason he’d avoided speaking with her. He’d been sure that if he began discussing this with his mother, he would end up crying about it.

“If I do set him free…” Thanatos tried to swallow back tears. “If I do set him free, he’ll fly to Olympus, with all its many gods, and walk the world, with its teeming mortal lives. Zagreus loves everyone, Mother.” Thanatos let out a half-hysterical bark of laughter. “He’s managed to love the damn bone hydra! He’ll give that love freely, and get love in return, and how can I believe that he won’t find someone better for him than I? That he won’t decide to stay there, and never return?”

Nyx moved to Thanatos and folded her arms around him. For a moment he resisted, then let go into her embrace, putting his face against her shoulder and letting the tears flow. “Oh my child. The prince does love you very much. He would never simply abandon you. Surely you know that.”

“I do. I do,” said Thanatos into the soft fabric of her dress, dampened now with tears. “But I’m _Death_ , Mother. I’m a thing of darkness and hard edges and guarded words. I’m no fit companion for Life. He’s so much more than I, so far beyond me. So much better and kinder and more generous than me. Surely he’ll find someone up there like him, someone who’s a proper match for him. If he does that, I think I’d rather he never return. I… I don’t mind sharing him now, knowing I’m first in his heart. But I’m not sure I could deal with it if I were like Achilles is to him now, just an old friend who he loves but not… Not like…” Thanatos felt another wave of tears spilling. “Not like I love him,” he finally finished.

Nyx hugged him tightly for a long moment without words, before finally saying, “I cannot say he could never love another more. Even I do not know what may someday lie in a god’s heart. But oh, my child, he loves you so deeply now. Please, trust in that. Whether he stays here, and solaces himself with it, or whether you find a way to set him free, do not let false despair claim you.”

“Thank you, Mother,” said Thanatos, and let her cradle him until his tears finally ceased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being mean to both Than and the reader. :D More tomorrow!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter references events in Taking Advantage, but it's not necessary to have read that first.

Thanatos stood at his familiar balcony, looking out over the hellscape beyond, and thinking, as he usually did while standing there, of Zagreus, presumably somewhere out in all that, fighting his way up to the surface for the thousandth time.

He was alone just now, Achilles wasn’t at his post down the hall and Dusa was elsewhere too. That let him feel free to heave a deep sigh. What was he going to do? He wasn’t ready to give up on helping Zagreus finally escape, but he could think of no other angles to attack the problem from. Zagreus was bound to the Styx as Hades was bound to the realm itself, and that was likely to be just as immutable.

“Hey, Than!”

Somehow the cheerful voice behind him made Thanatos smile in spite of himself, his heart jumping, his mood brightening. He turned and saw Zagreus approaching, his mismatched eyes alight, a cheerful smile on his face.

“Hello, Zagreus.”

“Hey, I was wondering if you could help me practice the whole powers thing some more? I’m getting pretty good at the blood control, but the blood aura is really hard to do still. And maybe I could do it without cutting myself?”

“Of course, Zag, I’d be happy to help.” Thanatos had been helping Zagreus learn to use his divine abilities. The boons of other gods were useful things, but Zagreus ought to know how to do what he could of his own accord, now that he’d figured out what his aspects were. Controlling blood was of course a thing the God of Blood might do easily. Thanatos could think less how Zagreus might control life. And for both of those there was a divine aura, a mantle of power and awe that he could don, if he so chose. Thanatos himself never took on his own aura. The mantle of death did nothing but terrify all around him, so he eschewed using it. But a mantle of life or even blood might have some better use.

“Okay. So. Ah. The Life part I think I’ve got? Lemme just do that first.”

Thanatos leaned back against the railing as Zagreus half-closed his eyes in focus. A moment later the young god was wrapped in a radiant aura of divinity, not visible, but felt, something that gave even Thanatos a faint urge to go to his knees and worship.

“Yes, that looks like you’ve gotten some practice in,” said Thanatos. “You’re summoning it quite easily now.”

“I guess you could say that,” said Zagreus, with a laugh. “But the blood one…” His face screwed up in annoyance. “I seem to need actual blood to do it.”

“What about the Styx?” asked Thanatos, gesturing out towards the hellscape, where the Styx ran directly below him. “It’s right there.”

Zagreus, still radiating life, came and stood next to Thanatos at the rail. He peered down at the river of red, and then with a laugh that suddenly had a dark echo in it, his second divine aura flared to life. Thanatos flinched, clinging to the railing and to his scythe as well, suddenly having all he could do to not fall to his knees. Blood and Life shouldn’t be terrifying to Death, but somehow the combination was. “Th-that’s very good, Zag,” he said, his grip white-knuckled.

Both auras instantly vanished, and Zagreus gave Thanatos a sheepish smile. “Sorry about that.”

Thanatos composed himself again. “It’s fine. You’re learning what you can do. I’m sure there are many more things.”

“Yeah. Like, controlling blood is useful. Though I have no idea how I’d control life. I suck blood into myself, it seems like? Or I can send it places. But if I send life away from where it is… Isn’t that just death? That’s your job!” He grinned. “And I’m already alive, I don’t know what I could possibly do by sucking in life.”

“I…” Thanatos suddenly drew in a sharp breath as realization dawned. “Of course! Life is Olympian, so it’s ordered.” His eyes fixed on Zagreus. “There is something you can do. You can stay alive on the surface for longer than an hour, that’s what you can do.”

“I… Ordered? Huh? What do you mean?” Zagreus’ brows drew together in puzzlement.

“I’ve been learning why, exactly, you die when you go to the surface.”

“Oh. Well, all Cthonic gods do, right? It’s not unusual,” said Zagreus, expression still puzzled, head tilted like a confused puppy.

“It is for you. You’re the son of two Olympians. It’s having a chaotic nature that kills those like me, you shouldn’t have one. In fact you should—and did—have an ordered nature that would be incompatible with a healthy life down here. But Nyx changed that by binding you to the Styx, and introducing some of the underworld’s chaos energy into you. That’s how she revived you.”

“Oh.” Puzzlement gave way to thoughtful consideration.

“I imagine if you draw too much blood into yourself, you could potentially unbalance things the other way. Too much chaos, well, you saw what it did to me earlier. But if you draw in life, you’re drawing in order, and can re-balance yourself to survive in the world above.”

Zagreus frowned. “But… Wouldn’t I have to pull life _from_ things? Wouldn’t I have to kill whatever’s around me in order to do that?”

“Perhaps. But perhaps not. The very air above is saturated with ordered life up there, after all. If the trees start withering, you can always stop and be no worse off,” said Thanatos.

“Point!” Zagreus perked up visibly. “Meet you at the top, then?”

“Why wait. Come with me?” Thanatos held out his hand. He didn’t want to sit here, picturing Zagreus leaving. Best to simply get this over with.

“Oh. Sure!” Zagreus took Thanatos’ hand, holding it tightly. Thanatos pulled him in, curving his other arm around, careful of his scythe’s blade, and then summoned his power. In an instant they both vanished from the House of Hades and appeared at the threshold of the underworld, standing just short of the snowy ground outside.

Thanatos let go of Zagreus, who peered around curiously. “Huh. No Father.”

Thanatos chuckled. “Disappointed to miss out on a fight?”

“Nah.” Zagreus smiled brilliantly. “Well… Guess I’d better see if this works.” He strode forward into the snow, feet hissing, leaving melted patches behind him. Thanatos hovered along behind him, preferring to leave no mark on the surface. Thankfully it seemed to have snowed since he himself had last died here, for when they reached the second threshold he could no longer see the splashes of golden ichor or the marks he’d left when he’d fallen.

Zagreus stood beneath the stone arch for a few moments, then took three quick strides forward. Thanatos waited, watching.

Zagreus drew in a few deep breaths, coughed and gasped for just a moment, then took another deep breath, then another, and then laughed. “It works! And…” He held out a hand, touched the needles of a nearby evergreen tree, which remained green and vital. “I can pull it from the air, like you said. I’m not hurting anything. Yes!” He spun around and launched himself at Thanatos, much to the death god’s surprise.

Next thing Thanatos knew he’d been half-tackled, and Zagreus was hugging him tightly. He yanked the floating death god down to ground level and kissed him soundly. “Thank you so much, Than! I can hardly believe it! I can actually visit Olympus! I can do some real gardening! I can see other parts of the world! I can meet living mortals! Gods! This is amazing!”

“I hardly did much,” said Thanatos, holding desperately to his self control.

“Than! You did a ton. I know this is what all that dying and deals with Chaos and stuff was about. You were figuring out how it worked, how to help me. So you did a lot. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He kissed Thanatos again before finally letting go.

Thanatos let his feet stay on the ground. “So… Do you know the way to Olympus from here?”

“I do, yes!” Zagreus grinned. “I think half a dozen different gods have told me, and Nyx did too.”

Thanatos nodded. “You should go, then. There’s no point waiting around, is there?”

Zagreus looked at him for a moment, then nodded back. “I guess not, no. Thank you again, though, Than. Really. I know all this was very hard on you. And…I can guess why you didn’t tell me what you were up to. So thanks for that, too. I think having this dangled in front of me for ages would have been crushing if it hadn’t worked out.”

“I just want you to be happy, Zagreus,” said Thanatos softly.

“I am.” Zagreus laughed, a sound of utter delight. “Happy and excited and curious, and… I don’t even know! There’s so much to see, so much to do! I hardly know where to start. But heading for Olympus is the first thing, I guess.” He stepped in and kissed Thanatos one last time. Thanatos managed, somehow, to not tear up as he kissed back.

“Goodbye, Zagreus, and good luck.”

“Bye, Than. Thank you again!” Zagreus waved, the same cheery wave he always gave, and trotted off through the snowy landscape.

Thanatos stood and watched until Zagreus vanished from view. Then, finally, he permitted himself to feel what had been building in him all this time, and collapsed into the snow, sobbing brokenly. Zagreus was gone, flown free, and there was no way he would be coming back.


	12. Chapter 12

Thanatos leaned against the balcony railing, one elbow braced on it, his chin in his hand. Looking out over the hellscape was much less comforting than it had once been. Zagreus wasn’t there, he was much, much further away. Yet Thanatos couldn’t stop doing it, couldn’t stop waiting in the spot where Zagreus had so often found him.

He heard a laugh, faint, from elsewhere in the house, that reminded him of Zagreus, and then the sound of voices. Hypnos had definitely greeted somebody. But Zagreus couldn’t possibly be back so soon. It had been not even two weeks.

Still, with a tension and a sense of hope he was certain would be crushed, Thanatos turned and walked down the hall. He hadn’t even gotten to where Achilles was posted when he heard an unmistakable voice say, “Sorry, I’ll tell you all about it later!” and then Zagreus was dashing out of the main hall.

“Than!” He tackled Thanatos with such enthusiasm that Thanatos couldn’t keep from losing his scythe—which vanished instantly once out of his hand—and falling flat on his back, Zagreus atop him. “Gods, I missed you so much!” said Zagreus, and kissed Thanatos hard and deep.

“Zagreus… You…” Thanatos found himself fighting back tears, and couldn’t tell if they were happy tears or frustrated ones. Zagreus was back so soon! Did that mean he’d just leave again? “It’s hardly been any time at all. Did you decide not to go to Olympus?”

Zagreus tilted his head, looking down at Thanatos in puzzlement. “Yes, I went. I got a ride partway there in a cart! It was like a chariot, but there was a cow pulling it, almost like Asterius, only not. It was too slow, though, so I ran most of the way. The gods are just as full of gossip and nonsense in person, but there’s so many more of them! I had to come back, though. Did you know it’s easier to fight down into Hell than out? I’ll have to tell Father about a few things that don’t work as well in the other direction!” He laughed, bubbling with energy. “I’ll go up to Olympus again. I can go whenever I like! But I missed you so much, Than. Did you not miss me?”

“Of course I missed you!” Thanatos scowled. “I… It’s only… Surely there are more interesting people up on Olympus…”

Zagreus stared at him for a moment, eyes wide. Then they narrowed, Zagreus’ expression almost angry. “Thanatos. There are lots of people on Olympus, yes. And out in the world too, I’m sure. None of them are you. None of them could ever be you. I love you, you idiot.”

“I—!” Thanatos sputtered, trying to find some response.

Zagreus’ expression turned tender, and he reached out to cup Thanatos’ face, stroking his thumb over Thanatos’ cheek. “Did you really think I wouldn’t come back to the House once I’d gone, Than? You’re here. Of course I was coming back. I’ll always come back.”

“I…” Thanatos started tearing up despite all he could do. He reached up to Zagreus, tangling his fingers in the prince’s untidy hair. “Yes, I’m here.”

“And I’m here too.” Zagreus let Thanatos pull him down and gave him another kiss, this one soft, sweet, and full of promise. The prince’s smile when he broke from the kiss was warm and tender. Thanatos’ was still tearful, but they were happier tears than he’d ever cried before.

“Here is a bit public, though,” said Zagreus, still smiling. “Perhaps elsewhere might be good?”

“Yes.” Thanatos managed to summon his scythe, despite still being flat on his back, and took both himself and Zagreus through nowhere to his home. They appeared on the floor of the central atrium, and Thanatos hadn’t even had a chance to drop his scythe again when Zagreus kissed him deeply, passionately.

“I’m going to show you how much I love you, Than,” he said when at last he let Thanatos breathe again. “I’ll say it too, as many times as I need to. I love you. I love you more than anybody.”

“But…” Thanatos felt a flicker of that uncertainty. “How can you be sure that won’t change? You… I mean…” Thanatos swallowed hard, but Zagreus only looked down at him, his mismatched gaze warm and sincere. “You love everyone. And nearly everyone loves you.”

Zagreus shook his head. “Not like I love you, Than. You’re special. You’ll always be special. Nobody new I could possibly meet could be like you. I’ve loved you my whole life, I think. Even when I thought you were my half-brother, you were the one I loved most of the family.” He stroked Thanatos’ cheek again. “And now I love you every possible way. Believe me. Trust me.” Utter earnest sincerity shone in Zagreus’ eyes, warm and soft in the green one, hard and certain in the red.

Fear went out of Thanatos in a rush. He might doubt himself, but how could he do anything but trust Zagreus? He let go his scythe and reached up to hold Zagreus tight and kiss him with desperate passion. “I love you too. I love you so much it hurts.”

“Oh, Than.” Zagreus ran his fingers through Thanatos’ hair gently. “I don’t want to hurt you. You deserve every kind of happiness, every possible good thing.”

Thanatos was certain he didn’t, but it still warmed him to hear Zagreus say it. “I… It’s okay.”

“I don’t know if it is, but… I guess right now all I can do is show you how much I love you.” Zagreus climbed up off of Thanatos and held out his hand. Thanatos took it and let Zagreus pull him to his feet, and then into the bedroom.

They helped each other undress there, not with frantic haste, but without wasting any time either. When they were both nude, Zagreus pushed Thanatos into the bed, climbing atop him, his body pinning the god of death down. His hands grabbed Thanatos’ wrists, pinning him down even more thoroughly, and then he kissed Thanatos deeply, hotly.

Thanatos could do nothing, _wanted_ to do nothing, but kiss back with all the passion he had. Zagreus stayed in the kiss a long, long time, his tongue exploring every bit of Thanatos’ mouth. When Zagreus broke from it at last it was to nip and bite at Thanatos’ ear and along his neck, making him moan and squirm. He ground his hips down, his cock a hot hardness against Thanatos’ own cock. Thanatos tried to buck against that contact, letting out a needy whine, wanting more. He tugged at his hands, but Zagreus didn’t let him go.

Instead he leaned in, biting Thanatos’ shoulder and saying, with soft passion, “You’re mine, Than. You are my first and greatest love. I’ll never love someone else the way I love you, and you will never belong to someone else the way you belong to me. My Thanatos, my love, mine entirely.” He bit Thanatos’ shoulder again, with a low, feral growl. “I would give up every other lover I have or could have in an instant if you wanted it of me. I would do anything for you, except this one thing: I will never, ever stop loving you.”

“Ah! Z-zagreus!” The wonderful pain of Zagreus’ teeth on him thrilled through him, but what he’d _said!_ Thanatos was swept away by it, and struggled for words to respond. “I… I love you s-so much. I…” He gasped as Zagreus bit him yet again.

“Shh, you don’t need to tell me that, Than. I know it. Just let me show you. Let me make you mine again.”

“Yes. Oh, gods, yes,” breathed Thanatos.

Zagreus let go of his wrists and sat back, but it was to grab the bottle of oil he’d left beside the bed, and Thanatos found himself spreading his legs apart eagerly without Zagreus even needing to do anything else.

“Mmm. Look at you, Than. See, I don’t have to hear it. I can see how good you are for me, how much you always want to please me, to take care of me. You’re just wonderful.” He gently pressed the tip of a finger, slicked with oil, against Thanatos’ entrance, stroking at first, spreading the oil outside. Thanatos whimpered needily, and with a low, soft chuckle Zagreus pushed his finger inside. “There you go. Does that feel good?”

“Oh… Yes, Zag… Please…”

“Of course, Than.” Zagreus pushed a second finger in, then a third, gently stretching and preparing Thanatos. He didn’t linger, though, he pulled his hand back, and Than felt his heart racing as Zagreus positioned himself above him once again. He guided his cock to just the right spot and sank in, not hesitating, the hot hardness of it spreading Thanatos open. Thanatos moaned with it, wonderfully filled by his love.

Once he was hilted, Zagreus caught Thanatos’ wrists again, holding him, and began to move. He gave a few slow strokes, giving Thanatos time to adjust, but Zagreus was breathing fast, obviously immensely wound up, and after just a moment he began thrusting hard and fast. “Ah… Yes… Fuck, Than, you feel amazing.”

“Yes,” gasped Thanatos, not able to find anything else to say. Then Zagreus covered his mouth with a kiss, even as he continued to take Thanatos roughly. The way Zagreus was taking him was needy and passionate and almost hurried, and Thanatos loved every bit of it. He wanted Zagreus desperately, wanted to be taken, wanted to be filled by his love.

Zagreus broke off the kiss and let go of Thanatos’ wrists, instead grabbing him by the shoulders and bending further over him, finding an angle that let him thrust even deeper. Thanatos let out a wordless cry, clenching down hard on Zagreus’ cock within him, on fire with pleasure that was edged with pain.

“Fuck, you’re amazing. I’m going to just use you, fill you up, claim you. You’re mine, Than. I’ll never let you go. I don’t care what other lovers you have, you’ll always be mine. Always. Ah… Ha… Gods, yes, Than. _Mine!_ ” And with that last, low cry Zagreus came, cock twitching as he thrust in deep, body shuddering, fingers digging into Thanatos’ shoulders.

“Oh! Oh, _yes!_ Yours,” gasped Thanatos, feeling the hot slickness of it within him as Zagreus filled him, and found himself nearly there as well, it was so good.

Zagreus slowly relaxed, still panting, but no longer moving atop Thanatos. He looked down with a pleased smile, and there was a sparkle in his eyes as he said, “I want to be yours too, Than. Here.” He lifted a hand, digging his nails into the side of his neck, scratching deep enough to draw a few tiny beads of blood, which stood just over the pulse-point beneath.

Thanatos gasped, eyes fixed on that seeping redness. “B-but your father forbade…”

“Trust me,” said Zagreus, his voice still breathless, his gaze intent.

Thanatos swallowed, and part of him knew it was madness, to trust Zagreus above the orders of Lord Hades, but he did. Zagreus pressed tight to him, and Thanatos lifted his head just enough to lap at the scratch, then, with newly-sharpened teeth, he bit in, hearing Zagreus’ soft gasp and following moan, but almost not noticing in the sudden flood of sweet, hot, copper-salt redness. He’d bitten into the vein, and there was far more blood than he could drink, staining him and the bed beneath.

Zagreus cupped his hand beneath Thanatos’ head, holding him up as he took in all he could, mind and body and entire being on fire with the strange, wonderful intimacy of it, taking Zagreus’ very life into himself.

Then Zagreus’ other hand reached between them, curling around Thanatos’ cock, stroking it firmly, rapidly.

Thanatos moaned against the side of Zagreus’ neck, still inundated by the pulsing flow of his love’s life. He tensed, trembling, and Zagreus stroked faster still, until with a shudder Thanatos finally pulled back from Zagreus’ neck, his body arching back as he came hard.

Thanatos saw the pulsing flow slow, felt Zagreus’ hand grow too weak, falling from his cock, his head lowering as he collapsed onto Thanatos, knew that he’d once again killed his love. Yet something was different, and with a shock, Thanatos realized he sensed no cut thread, no soul set loose for him to reap.

Indeed a moment later Zagreus drew in a shuddering breath and opened his eyes, slowly levering himself up onto his elbows above Thanatos. The blood splattered liberally around them seemed to flow in reverse, absorbing into Zagreus’ skin everywhere it touched, until there was no trace of it, and his love was smiling down at Thanatos, his mismatched eyes as clear and lively as if he hadn’t just died a moment ago.

“Zagreus? How…?”

“Same way I live on the surface now. I’ve learned how to be the god of life, Than. And I have you to thank for that. Even if you weren’t already beloved to me a hundred times over before that, that alone would endear you to me greatly.”

He gave Thanatos a soft, gentle kiss, then climbed off of him. “It’s nice for cleanup too, but alas I have no special power over cum. Shall we go have a bath?”

Thanatos laughed, some final bit of tension going out of him as he rose. Everything was going to be alright, wasn’t it? He was Zagreus’ and Zagreus was his, and now Zagreus had come into his power, and could take care of him, the way he’d always tried to take care of Zagreus. What else could he possibly ask for in all the world, above or below?

“That sounds wonderful,” he said, and he meant far, far more than merely bathing together.

Zagreus took Thanatos’ hand and threaded their fingers together, before pulling him towards the bathing room. “It does, doesn’t it? It _all_ sounds wonderful. You being mine, my being yours. Life and Death together. Achilles was right, I think, we’re meant for each other. But that doesn’t matter either. I feel that even if we were both mortals, I’d still love you, Than. It’s all amazing and I wouldn’t change a single thing.”

Thanatos halted, and tugged Zagreus to a stop too. Then he bent and pressed a kiss on Zagreus, warm and sweet. “Yes. I wouldn’t change a single thing either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to be merciful and post both remaining chapters today, rather than leave you at poor Than crying in the snow. (He's a bit of a drama queen, tbh, but we all love him anyway!)
> 
> Thanks for reading, and thanks for all the kind comments, they give me life!
> 
> If you'd like to see me talk about writing, my works in progress, other creative endeavors, and my life in general, check out [my Dreamwidth blog](https://bladespark.dreamwidth.org/) or my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bladespark). I also now run a [multiship, adults-only, kink-friendly Hades server](https://discord.gg/zSUcd9s5rt%20rel=). Feel free to join!


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